Well, Jim, thank you for that really special introduction. One of the
things that made our years in Dallas so special was getting to know you
and Debbie, and so many other good friends here. I want to acknowledge
the good works done by the people here at this head table.
Particularly, I want to acknowledge Major Jeffries and Mrs. Jeffries,
Major Mockabee and Mrs. Mockabee. You do wonderful work. Ray Nixon,
thank you for your leadership. And Shelly, thanks for putting this
lunch together. It's just terrific.

Well, as I think back on that introduction, I'm going to have to take
that along with me. You know, people don't always know exactly how to
introduce the wife of the Vice President of the United States and I get
some pretty strange introductions, like "Mrs. Vice President." That's
topped, though, by how I heard Tipper Gore say she had been once
introduced. She had been introduced as the "First Lady of Vice." So
you can never be sure how it's going to turn out and that one turned out
pretty well.

That's the problem isn't it? There is not a title. There's the Second
Lady of the United States, but that seems sort of odd, especially when
you hear the acronym. The President is POTUS, President of the United
States. That sounds powerful. The First Lady is FLOTUS, First Lady of
the United States. That sounds graceful. The Vice President is VPOTUS.
I'm SLOTUS. So I avoid that one, too.

What title should I have? I have three granddaughters and a grandson.
But a few years ago, my granddaughter Elizabeth, who was four at the
time, went to California with her mom to visit the other grandparents.
And I have to tell you, one of the great disillusioning experiences of
life is realizing that there is another set of grandparents. You have
to share. But, in any case, they had gone to California to visit the
other set of grandparents. And my daughter was driving the children
across the Oakland Bay Bridge, which is quite a formidable bridge. And
she remembered that when she had been little, I had driven her and her
sister across the same bridge and I had run out of gas. Well, she knew
the four-year-old would enjoy this story because what do kids like more
than hearing about the incompetence of adults? So she told her about
how I had run out of gas on the Oakland Bay Bridge and the four-year-old
was fascinated, loved the story, but was confused because she is
visiting her other grandmother in California. And she said to her
mother, "You mean Grandma Julie?" And my daughter said, "No, Grandma
Lynne," which was still odd because she's never called me Grandma Lynne.
And my daughter says, you're looking at her little face and there was
puzzlement. And then suddenly a light went off and my four-year-old
granddaughter said, "You mean the Grandma of the United States!" So
that is absolutely impossible to beat when it comes to a title.

Well, it is just a special pleasure to be here in Dallas where Dick and
I spent five very happy years. I love driving through the streets and
seeing the familiar sights. I love the can-do spirit of this city. And
I have loved, in the time since we left Dallas, the opportunity to get
to know and to work beside a remarkable son and a wonderful daughter of
Texas, President George W. Bush and his wife Laura.

We have been through some challenging times of late in our country, but
as Mrs. Bush has observed, our President has broad shoulders. He is
steadfast. He is determined. He is exactly the leader we need for these
times. And if you will permit me to say so, the Vice President is no
slouch either.

I'm not here today to talk about world events, but I think that wherever
Americans gather together in this time, in this week, in these days,
there are two world events I think should be noted, the first being the
Iraqi people voting on their Constitution. As a student of history, and
as a historian and teacher, I frequently point out that it took America
twelve years from the time we declared our independence to the time we
ratified our Constitution. The Iraqis have covered that ground in less
than three years. It is a remarkable achievement, one for which Iraqis
can be very proud, and one for which Americans, who have helped and
sacrificed mightily, can be proud of as well.

The second event is the opening of the trial of Saddam Hussein, a man
who killed hundreds of thousands of his countrymen in unimaginably
brutal ways. His being brought before a court of law, before a court
where there is due process, regard for evidence, and where the rule of
law prevails, is a triumph of civilization over darkness. It is an
affirmation for the world that brutality can be met with the rule of
law. The Iraqi people and the American people can take great pride in
that. And I know that all of you will join me here today in thanking
the fine young men and women of America's armed forces who are making us
more secure at home as they spread freedom in Iraq and around the world.

I can remember thinking when we lived here in Dallas that I had never
known any place that was so civic-minded, so determined to make a place
better, to make the town and the city better for everyone who lives
here. And so it wasn't a great surprise to me to watch the way the city
responded to Hurricane Katrina-opening up the Reunion Center for
emergency housing, providing clothes, food, diapers, and all the other
things families need, then raising millions of dollars to move those who
had lost so much into more permanent housing, both here in Texas and
elsewhere. When I read of what this state accomplished - taking care of
the emergency needs of some 139,000 Louisianans, enrolling some 20,000
Louisiana children in Texas schools, taking Louisiana's college students
into Texas colleges - it made me very proud to remember that I had a
connection with this most amazing state.

And after Katrina came Rita, of course, and the exodus from Houston that
I think has rightly been compared to the Berlin Airlift. And now Texans
are rebuilding in Beaumont and Port Arthur, just as they rebuilt in
Galveston at the turn of the 20th Century after the worst natural
disaster in American history. Central to all these efforts, not only in
Texas, but in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, wherever there has been
trouble and woe, is the work of the Salvation Army.

When Dick and I toured the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Salvationists
were among the first people we met. In Gulfport and Biloxi, the
Salvation Army's officers and volunteers were there happy to greet
visiting VIPs, but most of all focused on what they could do to help
those who were suffering. Of all the things that impress me about the
Salvation Army's work, maybe that is foremost-the absolute attention to
the task at hand, to feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and
providing guidance to lost souls. These are the things important to
those who work in the Salvation Army. They, I'm sure, like all of us,
are happy to have their efforts noted, but in my observation they do not
work with the notice of this world in mind. It is faith that moves the
Salvation Army today, as it has through this astonishing organization's
long history.

The Salvation Army began in the bleak slums of Victorian England when
William Booth and his wife Catherine began their work as evangelists
among the poor, the hopeless, and the hungry. So great was their
determination to save souls and help the desperate, so shining was their
faith, that by 1867 they had 1,000 volunteers preaching and singing and
saving. In 1878, William Booth, or General Booth as he was called by
them, was reading an annual report of The Christian Mission-- that was
the name of his organization at the time-and he saw this phrase: "The
Christian Mission is a volunteer army." And he crossed out the word
"volunteer" and wrote in the word "salvation," and thus the Salvation
Army was born. And those in the volunteer army became soldiers of
Christ.

Their work was often hard. They were mocked and they were persecuted.
But their numbers grew, and not just in England.

In 1879, Lieutenant Eliza Shirley held America's first Salvation Army
meeting in Philadelphia and the United States proved most fertile ground
for the Army's work.

In a book I recently published, A Time for Freedom, I included a quote
from Alexis de Tocqueville, a young Frenchman who visited the United
States in the first half of the nineteenth century. And he said on his
first arrival here, it was the religious aspect of our country that
struck him most. The idea that God plays a role in our lives has been
with Americans from the beginning. The pilgrims thanked God for
bringing them across "the vast and furious ocean." The Puritans asked
the Lord to make their colony "like a city on a hill" that could inspire
the world. Revivals and awakenings spread across this country, bringing
millions to faith, and in this land, where religion flourished, so too
did the Salvation Army.

And there was another good reason that the Army was a good fit in
America, and that was because of this country's tradition of helping and
giving. Alexis de Tocqueville was also struck by that, by our tradition
of always helping and giving, and not turning to government but turning
to others to help. He was struck by that and he speculated that the
freedom and self determination that we know account for our eagerness to
work on behalf of our fellow citizens. Whatever the cause, the American
habits of philanthropy and volunteerism are unparalleled in the world.
People open up their pockets when they see their fellow Americans in
need of help-they did it after 9/11 when we found ourselves and our
great nation under attack. And they have done it after Katrina and Rita.
I know that President George H. W. Bush and President Clinton have
together raised more than $100 million. The total amount contributed to
help those whose lives were devastated by recent hurricanes has exceeded
$1.5 billion. People not only open up their pockets, they open up their
homes. I've been touched time and again to read of people like Sue
Sanford, a University Park mother of four, who opened her house to
twenty members of the McCray family who had lost their home in New
Orleans.

And so today the Salvation Army has spread all across the United States,
and indeed, across the world. I know that all of you here are aware of
what a fine organization this is, but let me hammer the point home with
just a few statistics. In the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita,
the Salvation Army-and this was in early October-the Salvation Army has
served more than 2.6 million meals and passed out 4 million sandwiches.
Over 600,000 people have been served in over 40 states. And while it is
during disasters that the work of the Salvation Army comes most to
attention, its officers and volunteers are on the frontline every day
caring for the poor, feeding the hungry, and befriending the friendless.
One project here in Dallas that deserves special note is Project
Tomorrow, which provides scholarships for low-income students to attend
Tyler Street Christian Academy in South Dallas. Kids who would
otherwise not have had the opportunity receive intellectual and
spiritual training and opportunities to attend first-rate colleges and
universities: Rice, Texas Tech, and the University of Texas.

I want to thank the Salvation Army for all the good work of this
organization. And I want to thank everyone here for helping the
officers and volunteers of the Salvation Army with their mission. And I
particularly want to thank the organizers of this luncheon for giving me
the time and giving me the opportunity to spend time here in Dallas, a
place I love very much.